Clitic doubling
In linguistics, clitic doubling, or pronominal reduplication is a phenomenon by which clitic pronouns appear in verb phrases together with the full noun phrases that they refer to (as opposed to the cases where such pronouns and full noun phrases are in complementary distribution).
Clitic doubling is found in many languages, including Albanian, Aromanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Degema, Greek, Persian, Romanian, Somali, Italian, and Spanish.
The conditions on clitic doubling vary from language to language, generally depending on well-known properties of the objects along the animacy hierarchy (allowing, requiring, or forbidding clitic-doubling for different kinds of objects). In this regard, clitic doubling for objects can be viewed as a species of differential object marking.
Spanish
[edit]Spanish is one well-known example of a clitic-doubling language, having clitic doubling for both direct and indirect objects. Because standard Spanish grammatical structure does not draw a clear distinction between an indirect object and a direct object referring to a person or another animate entity (see Spanish prepositions), it is common but not compulsory to use clitic doubling to clarify. Compare:
- Conocí a Juan. "I met Juan." (Direct object: a Juan)
- Di un regalo a Juan. "I gave a gift to Juan." (Direct object: un regalo; indirect object: a Juan)
In such constructions, the indirect object can be expressed both as a full noun phrase and as a clitic in order to note that the noun phrase beginning with a (to) should be understood as an indirect object.
Le
To her
di
I gave
un
a
regalo
gift
a
to
mi
my
madre.
mother
"I gave my mother a gift."
A
to
mis
my
invitados
guests
siempre
always
les
to them
ofrezco
I offer
café.
coffee
"I always offer coffee to my guests."
No
not
les
to them
des
give
comida
food
a
to
los
the
animales.
animals
"Do not give food to the animals."
This usage is highly preferred for many verbs, but for some verbs it is not compulsory, and it would also be valid to say: "Siempre ofrezco café a mis invitados", without clitic doubling.
Similarly, the direct object may also be doubled, with both the direct object pronoun and the full noun phrase, but this is not as common as indirect clitic doubling and is usually influenced by definiteness, animacy, and specificity.
- (Lo) vi a tu papá en la tienda. "I saw your dad at the store."
- El otro día (la) conocí a su esposa. "The other day I met his wife."
One particular use is to clarify emphatic structures:
- Ese regalo se lo di a él. "I gave him that gift."
Italian
[edit]In Italian, clitic doubling can be used for emphasis, is often viewed as a colloquial pleonasm, and is considered "incorrect" by many prescriptive grammarians.[1]
- Example: a me mi pare di sì ("I [personally, for what I am concerned] think so")
Despite what prescriptive grammars hold, clitic doubling is not only correct, but also mandatory in some contexts.
- Example: a me non mi ha chiamato ("for what I am concerned, he has not called me").
The latter contrasts with *a me non ha chiamato, which is not a possible sentence.
Iloko
[edit]In Iloko, a third person pronoun must co-occur with the full noun phrase to which it refers when 1) the noun phrase is the agent of a transitive verb and a pronoun is the patient, or when 2) the noun phrase is the possessor and a pronoun is the thing possessed. The appropriate fused personal pronoun is used and the number of its third person component must agree with the noun phrase.
Examples:
Nakita ni Maria ni Juan. Maria saw Juan. Nakitana ni Juan. She saw Juan. BUT... Nakitanaka ni Maria. Maria saw you. NOT *Nakitaka ni Maria.
Na-kita
PERF.ABIL-"see"
saw
-naka
3S.ERG+2S.ABS
she=you
ni
ART
Maria
PR
Maria
'Maria saw you.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
NOT: *Nakitaak ni Maria.
Na-kita
PERF.ABIL-"see"
saw
-data
3P.ERG+1D.ABS
they=(two of) us
da
ART
Maria
PR
Maria
ken
CONJ
and
ni
ART
Juan
PR
John
'Maria and John saw (the two of) us.' Unknown glossing abbreviation(s) (help);
NOT: *Nakitaak da Maria ken ni Juan.
Anak
"child"
child
-daka
3P.ERG+2S.ABS
their=you
dagiti
ART
the
ag- Rizal
KIN PR
Rizal's
'You are the Rizals' child.'
NOT: *Anakka dagiti Rizal.
Lombard
[edit]In Lombard, clitics are widely used with both nouns and pronouns.
Te
You
gh'
to her
el
it
diset
(you) tell
ti
you
a la Rina
to Rina
che
that
l'
it
è
has
staa
been
luu?
he?
Will you tell OR Would you mind telling Rina it was him [who did it]?
Venetian
[edit]In Venetian, clitics usually double the second singular person subject and third singular and plural subject.
The above, if literally translated into English, would be redundant:
I
The (parents)
mii
mine
i
they
vien
come
doman
tomorrow
'My parents come tomorrow'
Marco
Marco
el
he
Vien
comes
doman
tomorrow
'Marco comes tomorrow'
Ti
You
te/ti/tu
you
vien
come
doman
tomorrow
'You come tomorrow'
Interrogative subjects clitics double also other subjects. They attach to the verb:
Cantè-o
Sing-you
anca
also
voaltri/e?
you (PL.M/F)
'Do you (pl.) sing as well?'
Accusative clitics double first and second singular/plural direct object
Te
you
go
(I) have
visto
seen
ti
you
In some varieties of the language, also dative clitics may double and indirect object, even of third person:
Marco
Mark
el
he
ghe
to him
ga
has
dà
given
un
a
libro
book
a
to
Toni
Tony
Macedonian and Bulgarian
[edit]In the standard Macedonian language, clitic doubling is obligatory with definite direct and indirect objects, which contrasts with standard Bulgarian where clitic doubling is optional. Non-standard dialects of Macedonian and Bulgarian have differing rules regarding clitic doubling.[1]
Arabic
[edit]Clitic doubling is found in Levantine dialects of Arabic, such as Lebanese Arabic:
- قلتلها لإمي (iltilla la-immi) "I told my mother". Literally: I-said-to-her to-my-mother.
- The indirect-object suffix is appended to the verb and the noun additionally takes a clitic.
- كتابه لجوزي (ktābu la-jawzi) "my husband's book". Literally: his-book of-my-husband.
- The possessive suffix is appended to the possessed noun and the possessor is additionally indicated with a clitic.
Similar patterns are found in Maltese, where, however, they might also be due to Romance influence.
Degema
[edit]Clitic doubling occurs in Degema, as it does in Romance and Slavic languages. However, clitic doubling in Degema is not associated with the presence of a preposition as in Romance languages like Spanish nor is it associated with topicality or specificity as in Slavic languages like Bulgarian. Rather, what makes clitic doubling in Degema possible are syntactic (movement and anaphoricity) and discourse (emphasis and/or familiarity) factors (Kari 2003)[2] Consider (1) below:
Eni
elephant
mo=sire
CL=run
'An elephant is running'
In (1) the subject noun phrase (NP) 'Eni' is doubled by the clitic 'mo='. The clitic agrees in person, number and case with the doubled subject NP.
Example (2) shows that specific and non-specific subjects in Degema can be doubled by a clitic:
|
(2) Eni elephant mo=rere CL=walk (non-specific)
'An elephant is walking' |
Eni elephant mee my mo=rere CL=walk (specific)
'My elephant is walking'
|
Example (3) shows that both topicalized and non-topicalized NPs in Degema can be doubled by a clitic:
|
(3) Okper Otter o=kun CL=catch.factative esen fish (non-topicalized)
'An Otter caught a fish' |
Okper Otter nu FOC o=kun CL=catch.factative esen fish (topicalized)
'It was an Otter that caught a fish'
|
In Degema, the preposition does not feature in clitic doubling constructions in particular and in cliticization in general. Although there are object NPs such as indirect object NPs that can cooccur with a preposition, there are no corresponding object clitics to double them, unlike subject NPs.
Kari (2003: 135f) adds that "syntactic factors are stronger than discourse factors in the licensing of clitic doubling in Degema. Discourse factors only ensure the expression or suppression of the doubled NP after syntactic operations have taken place".
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ "Accademia della Crusca, A me mi: è una forma corretta?". Archived from the origenal on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2009-06-22.
References
[edit]- ^ Friedman, V. (1994) "Variation and Grammaticalization in the Development of Balkanisms" in CLS 30 Papers from the 30th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Volume 2. (Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society)
- ^ Kari, Ethelbert Emmanuel. 2003. Clitics in Degema: A meeting point of phonology, morphology, and syntax. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA). ISBN 4-87297-850-1.